Airport Plan To Expand Parking At Odds With Current Need

There's a glut of parking spaces at Bradley International Airport. The 870 spots at the furthest-flung shuttle lots have been mothballed since 2010 for that reason.

And while the 3,380 spaces in the airport garage across from Terminal A are filled at peak demand, all but one of the other lots are less than two-thirds full, even at the busiest times of year.

In all, there are just under 5,500 public spaces owned by the airport (not including the closed lots) and another 1,250 employee spaces.

So why would officials include 1,250 public parking spaces in a planned rental car garage next to the shuttered Murphy Terminal, a building project? The plan emphasizes that the garage could "proceed regardless of any new terminal construction."

More trips have to be made out of Bradley for there to be increased demand for parking, said Jack Ricchiuto, executive vice president of airport parking for Standard Parking, which runs parking at 60 airports around the country, including Bradley.

The 600 public spaces in front of Murphy Terminal, which cost $8 a day compared with the $24 a day in the garage, would be covered up by the new rental car garage. That lot also serves 425 employees. On the busiest day of the year, it's still just half-full.

"It's not really anything that's going to impact the garage that currently sits there," Ricchiuto said, because the existing garage is about two-thirds long-term parking.

Standard Parking is responsible for about $4.5 million in debt service each year on the existing garage and about $10.5 million a year in annual rent to the airport. The company has lost money nearly every year of the last 11, according to Mark Daley, the airport's chief financial officer.

"This year alone, it's $1 million roughly," he said, and parking revenues have fallen short of the rental and debt obligations and expenses by about $10 million over the whole period.

The company has been trying to renegotiate its lease agreement with the airport for years so that it doesn't have shortfalls. Daley said the airport does want to mitigate the losses, and said, "It remains the subject of discussions under all of the stakeholders."

The rental-car garage, whose construction cost is not estimated in the airport expansion plan, will have 2,250 spots for rental cars. Rental car customers have been paying a $3.50 surcharge since 2010, and $10 million has been put in escrow for the project. Daley said that fee will rise to cover the debt service cost once the garage is complete.

Even skeptics of the terminal building plan believe building a rental car garage in walking distance to the terminal is a good idea. Rental car customers will pay for it, and it will improve customer service, they say.

Ricchiuto said the number of public spaces could grow over the decades if more traffic materializes. The plan says two additional levels could accommodate a total of 2,600 public spaces.

"Garage structures can be built to be expanded, so you don't necessarily need to build all the parking spaces at one time, it can be expanded to meet public demand," he said.